About The Author:

Enid Blyton was born August 11, 18987, and passed November 28, 1968. She was an English children’s writer who was easily considered BestSeller since the1930’s. Since that point she has sold well over 600 million copies. Her styles were quite versatile ranging from fantasy, mystery, and history. A number of her works, although old, are still quite popular. Some of her more familiar works are the Noddy Character, The Famous Five, and the Secret Seven. This excludes of course her very first book known as Child Whispers which was a 24 page collection of her poetry that was published at some point in 1922. This article shall focus on the Secret Seven, and other memorable material regarding story information and character development.

The Secret Seven Development

The Secret Seven is also known as the Secret Seven Society, and focuses on a fictional-group of detectives who happen to be children. Each character appears to be in several other individual books. The characters of the Secret Seven are Peter, the society’s leader, Janet, Peter’s sister, Barbara, Barbara, Pam, George and Colin. All of these characters in Secret Seven attend day school which is why the actual story takes place during a school term.

The Secret Seven originally appeared as 7 separate short stories written by Enid, each pertaining to one of the seven characters. She also developed a short story regarding how the secret society was formed. Although these seven individual stories were originally unnoticed they were later published in a single volume.

The Secret Seven

This story, which was published in 1949, focuses on the adventures of Jack who comes across men who take a prisoner to an abandoned dwelling. This leads to the other six children becoming involved in the attempts to figure just what is going, and this is happening.

The Secret Adventure

This story picks up with rising action, as a great treasure is stolen. What makes this particularly unusual and albeit interesting is that the children stand as witness, as the thief flees the scene of the robbery. This causes the seven to put forth all they have in order to catch the criminal.

Well Done Secret Seven

This can be initially anticipated as a little hearted, or at least the aspect of the Secret-Seven’s new abode. They now reside within a tree house in this book. All initially appears to be fine and smooth the group of seven discovers that someone else has made use of their beloved treehouse. This initially angers the group of seven, as they attempt to bring about confrontation. This is the case, howver, until

they realize the so called tree house intruder may be residing in their new home for dire reasons. This puts the group of seven to the test once again to unveil the issue, and to assist this new person who has invited themselves into their midst. This shockingly leads to the group having to thwart a gang of robbers who are planning a detailed heist.

Secret Seven on the Trail

Mystery is cranked up a notch in this exciting novel involving the group of seven. At Tigger’s Barn something quite odd begins to occur, and as detectives, the group of seven attempt to figure just what’s going on. It is said to be quite mysterious. Initially despite what is being said, Peter denounces it all as one collection of falsehoods and rumors. This seems to be the case until Jack hears a rather interesting exchange of words that causes him to question Peter’s claim.

Go Ahead Secret-Seven

This was published in 1953. Things definitely become cut from a much more serious nature in this installment. George, one of children from the group of seven is banished from the society by none other than his father. It is revealed that this was the case due to the group practicing their shadowing and following techniques. As if things are not already odd enough now, dogs begin to start vanishing. Once again, thieves prove themselves to be quite persistent and resilient, as they are revealed to be the cause behind sudden and rapid disappearance of the dogs. Some of the children letter end up kidnapped by the group, as the situation turns disparate.

Good Work Secret-Seven

This installment was published in 1954. While things remain tense, certain members-of-the-group are hit hard, as Peter and Janet’s their car has been stolen by thieves. This definitely hurls itself at the group hard, and poses several issues that need to be resolved quickly. The shocking hook is that Peter and Janet have been abducted inside of their car without the thieves knowing.

Secret-Seven Win Through

This was published in 1955. Disaster most definitely strikes in this installment. The group of seven is horrified to realize their old meeting area has been dismantled by a gardener. This definitely poses issues for future cases.

These individual novels and others collectively make up the Secret-Seven, and provide a rich and compelling story leaving the audience plenty of content until they get their hands on the next book.

Characters

Peter- he is the presumed head of the secret society. He is a depicted as lacking no confidence. He is self-assured and commanding at times. He is shown as one who’s role is not often questioned and holds down territory as a respected and bold leader. Once and a while, however, Peter is shown to be somewhat blunt and albeit candid, especially with the girls ultimately leading to what some may view as insensitive moments. In spite of this, everybody looks up to and respects him. He can be interpreted as the most experienced of the group when it comes to passing along gems of knowledge. This can be observed in times where he certainly shows a great deal of deft leadership skills and advanced decision making processes. It is safe to assume that this is at a level that far surpasses that of a normal and average ten year old boy or girl. Some negative claims may be that he is seen at times as bossy, arrogant, condescending and dictatorial.

Peter takes a role in these seven books albeit different roles, but still present. His character is fully fleshed out and shown to possess a certain amount of depth and perspective.

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Recommendations

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Author / Series

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Featured Series

Our book series of the month is the Will Robie Series by David Baldacci. If you like Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne etc then you'll love the Will Robie series. These are page turners to the max too and Baldacci knows how to keep you going all night long!

Featured Author

Bill Wenham is the author of various book series including The Inspector Charrington Mysteries and the Inspector Bruce Mysteries. He just started writing in his 80s to follow a life long dream. It’s an amazing story and the books he has written are pretty great too – his passion really shines through. Read more about Bills books.

Did You Know…

David Baldacci received a degree in B.A in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and also a degree in Law from the University of Virginia. For nine years, he practiced law, first as a trial and then as a corporate attorney in Washington, D.C.